Greetings to you all, tall and small. I am Ezra, a proud participant of Northern Youth Abroad Next. I am 17 years old, and I come from a community of 2,000 people.

Northern Youth Abroad Next is a program that lets the youth of the NWT and Nunavut territories travel and discover job opportunities, education, and volunteer opportunities throughout Canada. Youth from the north are given the chance to learn, grow, and discover new things they may not have known or been taught in school. NYA also helps plan your future, or at least get you started on planning if you’re still unsure.

The Participants of NYA Next work together on assignments, activity planning, volunteer work, and trades for post-secondary. We played games, traversed the city, cooked/baked together, and even did a bit of music production together, all with laughs and supporting one another when things got a bit rough.

Despite not being used to the heat,I had a great time being lucky enough to be selected for this program. Both the fellow participants and staff were fun to work with, and every day was a new lesson and adventure. We have a lot of pictures of us working together, cooking/baking, volunteering, and just having fun as a group.

NYA Next taught me a lot about living in the city, volunteering, fundraising, and working in groups. I feel lucky to have met the staff and other participants, and would love to work with these people again someday. The staff showed a great deal of patience, knowledge, empathy, and understanding. There were very few moments where I wondered “how long is this gonna last?” because it felt like I was experiencing something new at a consistent rate, even if things slowed down or went irregularly fast.

I recommend Northern Youth Abroad to anyone who is still unsure of their future and would like something to give them a good start, as I now have a clear vision for my own future and am ready to set foot in the real world because of this program.


Sincerely,
Ezra Maksagak